Part 5

Mr. Baudouin is a supporter of the old conservative party, but has never taken a leading part in the political contests, especially so in his advanced years, when he recognizes the fact that political leaders too often are using their power for their own preferment instead of the public good.

JOSEPH ADELARD DESCARRIES, K. C.

In every community there are men of broad charity and intelligent public spirit, of high integrity and sincerity of purpose and of resourceful business ability who are marked as leaders in development. Worthy of being classed with men of this character is Joseph Adelard Descarries, one of the eminent members of the Montreal bar and a man whose name figures in connection with the legislative history of the province as well as in the court records. Mr. Descarries is a representative of one of the oldest families of the province and one whose members have been identified with its growth and development since the earlier periods of settlement. He was born at St. Timothee, in the county of Beauharnois, Quebec, November 7, 1853, the youngest son of the late Pierre and Elizabeth (Gougeau) Descarries.

Having mastered the branches of learning taught in the public schools of his native village, Joseph A. Descarries afterward attended Montreal College, McGill University and Laval University, graduating from the latter in 1879, with the degree of LL. L. He studied law under Hon. Sir Alexander Lacoste and was called to the bar in 1879, at which time he began practice as an advocate. He was created a king’s counsellor by the Earl of Derby in 1893 and for more than a third of a century he has been continuously and successfully engaged in law practice in Montreal, where he has been accorded an extensive and distinctively representative clientage.

His public work, too, has been of an important character and has indicated his loyalty to the highest standards of government. For nine consecutive years he was mayor of Lachine, giving to the city a businesslike and progressive administration. In 1892 he was elected for Jacques Cartier county to the legislative assembly, but resigned in 1896, in which year he unsuccessfully contested a seat in the house of commons. Since that time he has taken no active part in politics aside from exercising his right of franchise and standing stanchly in support of principles and measures in which he believes. He is now president of the Lachine Conservative Club and is also president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society of Lachine.

Mr. Descarries is the largest private owner of real estate in Lachine, his holdings including some of the finest residential properties surrounding Montreal. Some years ago he purchased a tract of land eleven acres in width from the Allan family, comprising a most attractive piece of property, which he developed and thus added greatly to the upbuilding of the district. He is the owner of one hundred and fifty-two houses, erecting all of them save one, and in their building substantiality has always been a feature. Unlike the usual structure built merely to sell, Mr. Descarries has aimed at the creation of an estate the ultimate value of which cannot help but become immense. As an illustration of the change in realty values, caused by improvements and transformation of surroundings, it may be cited that Mr. Descarries some years ago purchased a tract of land of four hundred acres, on which the taxes were at that time approximately eighty dollars, while today for less than one-third of this land which he owns the taxes are more than three thousand dollars. It would be difficult to estimate the value to a community of operations of this character. Mr. Descarries has taken an active part in the upbuilding of industrial interests, and his influence has been an important factor in securing for Lachine a number of valuable industries, all of which have materially contributed to growth and development for the city, enabling it to take a prominent rank among Montreal’s suburban cities. Among his other business connections Mr. Descarries is president of the Wealthy Mines Company, Limited, and a director of Les Champs d’Or Rigaud Vaudreuil.

In 1881 Mr. Descarries was married, at Chateauguay, Quebec, to Miss Marie Celina Elmire, a daughter of A. N. Le Pailleur, a notary public of Lachine. The marriage ceremony was performed by Monseigneur Charles Edward Fabre, archbishop of Montreal. Mrs. Descarries is a graduate of Mount St. Marie Convent and is a lady of superior intelligence and high qualities of mind. Their children are as follows. Joseph A. P., who was graduated from McGill University, specializing in chemistry, founded the Lachine Gas Company, of which he is now the head. He married Miss Oliva Forgues, of Outremont, a graduate of St. Anne’s Convent at Lachine. They have two children, Olivette and Marcelle. Theophile N., who was graduated from Laval University, is an advocate, associated with his father under the firm name of Descarries & Descarries. He married Miss Marie Anne Huot, a daughter of Dr. G. Huot, of Beauharnois, and they have one child, Anne Marie. Aimee, a graduate of St. Anne’s Convent of Lachine, is a young lady of unusual artistic taste and skill. Her work as a painter on china shows exceptional merit and includes some of the finest specimens of this decorative art exhibited by Canadian artists. Adelard, a graduate of Mount St. Louis College, is now a student at l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes. Marie Rose will graduate from St. Anne’s Convent of Lachine in the class of 1914. Auguste, a student at St. Mary’s College, is a young man of unusual talent and promise, whose ability as an organist is well known.

Mr. Descarries’ pleasure and recreation have always been greatly augmented when in the company of his family, whose entertainment, like their rearing and education, has never been neglected. Estimating highly the value of education, he has extended to his children exceptional opportunities for intellectual development and they constitute a family that would be a distinct credit to any parentage. Both Mr. and Mrs. Descarries have always maintained a companionship with their children and have been so close to their interests, thoughts, purposes and plans that there has been little need for that parental discipline which is often a too pronounced feature in households. Confidence and mutual understanding have been the basis of the family relation, rendering this a most attractive household. The religious belief of the family is that of the Roman Catholic church, and Mr. Descarries has for several years been president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He is also a member of the Club Lafontaine, the Lachine Snowshoe Club and the Auto and Aero Club of Montreal.

No history of Mr. Descarries would be complete without mention of the fact that he is a very public-spirited man, liberal and generous in his support of any movement for the public good and ever ready to lend his assistance to such movements as will contribute to the advancement of the city, province and Dominion. He has been a very successful business man, not only as regards the accumulation of property but as well in the high esteem in which he is held. He has all the elements of a man in whom to have confidence, dependable in any relation and in any emergency. His quietude of deportment, his easy dignity, combined with an innate courtesy and politeness, all contribute to a strong personality. The splendid use he has made of his time, talents and opportunities has equipped him for the important and valuable work he has been doing and which has given decided impetus to the city’s progress and improvement, upholding as well its legal, political and moral status.

LOUIS GUYON.

Capability and loyalty are the essential attributes of the man who would fill the office of chief inspector of industrial establishments and public buildings and properly perform the arduous and responsible duties thereby devolving upon him. Such a man is found in Louis Guyon, who has closely studied the subject of construction and all that relates to accidents which may occur in building operations. He is a native of the state of New York, having been born at Sandy Hill, Washington county. Boyhood, however, found him located in Montreal where he pursued his education, taking special courses in preparation for a commercial career. Almost throughout his entire life he has been in the public service. In April, 1888, he was appointed factory inspector and made a most capable official. He studied in every available way in order to know what should be required of factory owners and operators and just how far their responsibility extended in the protection of employes. He traveled widely in order to promote his knowledge of that character and he was a delegate to the Paris convention on accidents in 1889 and again in 1900. His qualifications were so thoroughly recognized that he was made chief inspector of industrial establishments and public buildings in January, 1901, and has since occupied this position, covering a period of thirteen years, his entire course being one which commends him to the continued confidence and support of the public. As inspector he has studied not only to find where fault may lie in the erection of buildings or in the care of employes, but has also studied the best methods of safeguarding the workers and in 1903 he founded the museum of appliances for the prevention of accidents. His reputation for efficiency in his special field continued to grow and in 1910 he was made president of the International Convention of Inspectors of Factories. No one is more deeply interested in this important work or realizes more fully the obligations which devolve upon the employer in his connection with his employes, and his work has constituted a campaign of education whereby the public has come to know what are the needs and demands of the hour and how best to meet them.

GEORGE HADRILL.

George Hadrill, secretary of the Montreal Board of Trade, is one whose opinions concerning business conditions are largely accepted as standard, because of his broad experience and his thorough study of matters effecting trade relations of the country. For more than a quarter of a century he has occupied his present position and has been called into conference in many trade councils. He was born in London, England, August 2, 1848, a son of George and Elizabeth (Bushell) Hadrill. His education was acquired in the metropolis, and he spent the earlier years of his business life in that city, arriving in Canada in 1874, when a young man of twenty-six years. Three years were devoted to business pursuits before he joined the staff of the Montreal Board of Trade in 1877. His fitness for the position is evidenced in the fact that by 1880 he had been promoted to the position of assistant secretary. Six years passed and in 1886 he was made secretary, so that he has now acted in that capacity for twenty-eight years. The occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his acceptance of the position was fittingly celebrated, and a cabinet of silverware was presented him by the Montreal Board of Trade.

His position as secretary brings him into close contact with business affairs and trade organizations throughout the world. He has been a delegate to several imperial trade congresses, the last being held in Sydney, Australia. By invitation he was a delegate to Newfoundland to assist in the formation of a board of trade there in 1909. He was presented in 1903 with a testimonial from British delegates to the imperial trade congress at Montreal in acknowledgement of courtesies and services rendered by him. In 1905 he was elected an honorary member of the International Board of Foreign Trade and was made honorary secretary of the King Edward memorial committee of Montreal in 1911. His position has brought him into close connection with many important civic and municipal projects with which the Board of Trade has been intimately associated.

In 1891 Mr. Hadrill married Emmeline Lilian, the daughter of J. Albert Copland of Chelmsford, England. Mrs. Hadrill died in December, 1902. Mr. Hadrill has been a director of St. George’s Society of Montreal and is an Anglican in religious faith. The Montreal Herald has written of him that he is “a man of great natural abilities as a statistician and accountant.” “He possesses unusual qualifications for his office, which calls for a display of diplomacy, tact and social qualities as well as for purely business ability,” writes another paper, and this opinion is corroborated by all who have come in contact with him. While thoroughly systematic and methodical in managing the duties of his position, he has at the same time that ready resourcefulness which enables him to meet an emergency and secure from it the best possible results.

CHARLES MELVILLE HAYS.

The tales of heroic conduct in times of war will always arouse the enthusiasm and call forth the praise of those who hear them, but heroism is by no means confined to the men who wear their nation’s uniform and march to the sound of the bugle. It has been manifest where there were none to witness and none to record the story and with nothing but an individual sense of duty for its inspiration. The world thrilled with the story of the heroism of the men, who, in the silence of the night, gave women and children over to the care of the few who manned the lifeboats and quietly awaited death on the decks of the steamship Titanic when it sank on its maiden trip across the Atlantic, April 15, 1912. Included in the great toll of human lives exacted by this catastrophe, was that of Charles Melville Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways and one of the foremost railroad magnates of his generation. His was the master mind in the development of the Grand Trunk Pacific and his work for the Grand Trunk Railway has become a part of the history of the Dominion. One of the elements of his success was that he was always essentially and strictly a railroad man, never dissipating his energies over too broad a field but concentrating his efforts along that single line of activity.

A native of Rock Island, Illinois, Mr. Hays was born in 1856, and was but a child when his parents removed to St. Louis, Missouri, in which city he was reared and received his educational training. He was but a boy of seventeen when he started out in life on his own account as a clerk in the passenger department of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway. From that time on his advancement was continuous and rapid, solely the result of his thoroughness, efficiency and genuine merit. After a year he was transferred to the auditor’s department and later was called to a position in the office of the general superintendent, where his aptitude, enterprise and initiative were soon recognized. From 1878 until 1884 he was secretary to the general manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and in the latter year was offered and accepted the position of secretary to the general manager of the Wabash & St. Louis Pacific Railway Company.

In 1886 he was appointed general manager of the road and the following year became general manager of the Wabash Western, comprising all of the Wabash lines west of the Mississippi and also between Chicago and Detroit. In 1889 he was appointed general manager of the reorganized and consolidated Wabash system and controlled the important and manifold interests of the railway for six years or until he resigned to become general manager of the Grand Trunk, succeeding L. J. Seargeant. Five years later he left the Grand Trunk to take the position of president of the Southern Pacific Railway Company but remained in that connection for only a year, as the railway passed under the control of the Harriman interests, whose policy differed from that of Mr. Hays. About that time he received a communication from Sir Charles Rivers Wilson, again offering him the position of general manager of the Grand Trunk and he returned to the latter road late in 1901 as second vice president and general manager. His connection therewith was continuous from that time until his demise, and on the retirement of Sir Charles Rivers Wilson in October, 1909, he was appointed president. In the meantime his connection with railway interests constantly broadened, making him one of the notable figures in railway circles on the American continent. He became president of the Central Vermont Railway, the Grand Trunk Western Railway, the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway, the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railway, the Michigan Air Line Railway, the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railway, the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line, the Southern New England Railway Company, the Canadian Express Company, the Grand Trunk Railway Insurance & Provident Society and of various corporations featuring largely as factors in commercial and industrial development. He was chosen to the presidency of the St. Clair Tunnel Company, the International Bridge Company, the Montreal Warehousing Company, the Portland Elevator Company and the New England Elevator Company. He also represented the Grand Trunk Western Railway as a director of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railway and Belt Railway of Chicago.

In 1905 he was made a member of the permanent commission of the International Railway Congress and also a director of the United States Mortgage & Trust Company. He was a delegate to the Imperial Trades Congress in 1903. He became a director of the Royal Trust Company and the Merchants Bank of Canada and a director of the Canadian Board of the London & Lancashire Life Assurance Company. He was also a director of the Montreal Horticultural and Fruit Growing Association--a fact which indicated much of the breadth of his interests. His executive ability was sought as an element in the successful management of various benevolent, charitable and philanthropic enterprises. He was a governor of the Montreal General Hospital, a governor of the Royal Victoria Hospital and a governor of the McGill University. In 1907 he was decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun (third class) by the emperor of Japan.

He was a man of remarkable personality. Obstacles and difficulties seemed but a stimulus for renewed effort on his part and he was never happier than when he could grasp an opportunity and utilize it to the fullest extent or untangle a knotty problem in railway management and control. Mr. Hays was a well known figure in club circles, belonging to the Mount Royal, St. James, Canada, Forest and Stream, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Hunt, St. Maurice Fish and Game Club and the Laurentian Club of Montreal and the Rideau Club of Ottawa. Sir Wilfrid Laurier had termed him “a valuable acquisition to Canada,” and the Montreal Witness said he was “a splendid example of what brains, pluck and industry can overcome and accomplish,” while the Montreal Standard styled him “a man of quiet dignity, whose sanity and strength are seen and felt in all his undertakings.”

Mr. Hays was survived by his widow, who was Miss Clara J. Gregg, a daughter of William H. Gregg of St. Louis, Missouri, and four daughters, Mrs. George D. Hall, of Boston, Mrs. Thornton Davidson, Mrs. A. Harold Grier and Mrs. Hope C. Scott, of Montreal.

One of the ships that hastened to the relief of the Titanic recovered the body of Mr. Hays, which was brought back to Montreal for interment and laid to rest following one of the most imposing funerals ever accorded a civilian in this city. Mr. Hays worshipped at the American Presbyterian church of Montreal and was one of its trustees, but retained his membership in the First Presbyterian church of St. Louis, Missouri, and in the memorial services held in the former on the 25th of April, 1912, a sermon by the Rev. Dr. McKittrick, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of St. Louis, following the death of Mr. Hays, was read. He said in part: “The colossal catastrophe of the seas which has so recently startled and dismayed the civilized world could not pass today entirely unnoted in the temples of the living God. Among those who went down to their unexpected and, it seems to our vision, their untimely death, there was no man who worthily had a higher position in the social, industrial and financial world than Mr. Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Since commonly the boy is father of the man we might almost refer to him as ‘our Mr. Hays’ for he was once in our Sunday School, and afterwards a member of our Board of Trustees. His is an inspiring example to all our boys and to every boy in the land of what may be accomplished by rightful purpose, industry, determination, all these by the worthy motives which variously constitute character. It took all the elements which are found in a manly man to make first so notable a record as was his in this city, and then to create for himself the distinguished name and for his undertaking the great prosperity which concerning both the history of today reveals.”

The following reference to Mr. Hays’ life and work was made at the close of public worship in the American Presbyterian church, Montreal, on Sabbath, April 28th. Dr. Johnston said: “The subject that we have been considering this morning has unavoidably suggested to you, as it has to me, many thoughts regarding the life, the death and the work of Mr. Charles M. Hays whose loss our land mourns today.

“Much has already been said of Mr. Hays as the railway magnate, the man of enterprise, the devoted husband and father and the loyal friend. Upon these phases of his character I will not therefore further dwell, but there remains something to be said of that feature of his life which, though less conspicuous to the general public, nevertheless lay deep and strong behind all these other characteristics, and was indeed the inspiration of them. We all in this congregation know the large place which Mr. Hays gave to the work and worship of the church, and the readiness with which his time and influence were always lent to its interests. He loved the House of God. That love, in a measure, was doubtless the result of early training in a home of whose deep religious character he ever loved to speak in terms of affection and appreciation. It was also due in part to his deep sense of what he owed in his place of great prominence to the community at large, and to a younger generation in particular, in the way of example. Most of all, however, it was due to his appreciation of the place that worship should have in every life, and to his deep sense of the need of every soul for those things that the House of God and its services can give. This attitude instead of lessening, as in so many lives it does, as responsibilities increased, and honours accumulated, deepened in Mr. Hays with the passing years.

“The continent-wide enterprises with which his name will always be associated were not simply enterprises and interests to him. They constituted a work, a ministry, which it was given him to administer for man, and through man for God. The tens of thousands for whom he had already thrown open the door of their exodus from European stagnation and oppression were his Israel, whom he, in God’s name, was leading out into liberty and larger life. These broad prairies and boundless stretches of Northern Saskatchewan and the Peace River district, those hitherto impassable Rockies, giving gateway to the flowering farmlands that slope toward the silver sands of the Pacific--these were his Canaan, which it was his to conquer, not with sword and clash of battle, but with genius and enterprise and the power of science, so that into the good ‘Land of Promise’ he might bring the oppressed peoples of the world, to make a nation strong in liberty and in righteousness.

“Did time permit I could tell you much of how Mr. Hays carried on his great heart, the toiling multitudes of earth and their needs, and of how it was to him a vision glorious that he was permitted in some measure to contribute to their uplift and redemption. He, too, like Israel’s leader, had looked upon the burdens of the people. To us it seems that, like Moses, he has been permitted only to view his promised land from afar. On the threshhold of completion he has been bidden to lay down his work. A broken column? A work incomplete? Yes, if this world is all, and this life the only life, but if death is indeed for the life that lives in Christ, not extinction but expansion, not frustration but promotion, than surely in some other of the many mansions in our Father’s one great house, they still serve who have ceased from labor here, and work with gladness for the bringing in of that day when throughout all the universe of God there shall be nothing to hurt nor to destroy, but ‘God shall be all and in all.’”

The press throughout the American continent united in tribute to Charles Melville Hays and under the caption of Montreal’s Loss the Gazette of April 19, 1912, said editorially: “Among the many places which will have home reasons for bearing the loss (April 15, 1912) of the steamship Titanic in sorrowful memory there will be few to rank before Montreal. Of residents who had won or were winning honorable places of usefulness in the city’s commercial life, no less than four ended their earthly career in the dark hours of Monday when the Atlantic waters closed over the wreck of what had been one of the world’s noblest vessels. First of these, of course, ranks Mr. Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways and director and adviser in many allied and other enterprises. Mr. Hays came to Montreal as a stranger, when the condition and fortunes of the Grand Trunk Railway were low indeed. The life had apparently gone out of the direction and a great property, with greater potentialities, was in danger of passing into bankruptcy. He and his associates found their task harder also because they were strangers. It was only a little while, however, before the city and the country, as well as the proprietors of the railway, recognized that in the new general manager, which was the title Mr. Hays then had, they had a man who for capacity ranked with the highest in his profession. With a slight interruption Mr. Hays has had chief executive control since 1897 of the Grand Trunk Railway. In that time it has been lifted physically to the standard of a high class, well equipped road, with few superiors in America. Financially it has been so improved as to meet the interest charges on the new capital raised for betterments and has been able to pay dividends on some of the older issues that once seemed to have lost all value as investments. In late years he was a chief moving spirit in the projection and construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, which is now approaching completion. His work in these connections speaks of his executive ability louder than can words written or spoken. It is only to be added that in all relations of life, business or social, he was a plain, courteous and kindly gentleman, to whom all were ready to pay in full measure the respect that he deserved.”